NICO MONETTI | staff writer

Two students gained global fame when they starting posting ad-lib videos on YouTube.

Sophomore commercial music major Shawn Morones and sophomore church music major Joel Simpson have created a YouTube short video franchise that has attracted the attention of thousands of viewers from all over the world, using nothing more than a MacBook, YouTube, and a fake beard from the dollar store.

Thousands of YouTube users click onto, “youtube.com/foundmyrosebud01” every day to watch the short homemade videos featuring Morones, whose onscreen persona is an outrageous chicklet-addicted man who looks like a rabbi, sounds like Dave Chappelle, and claims to be Kanye West. Featured in many of these videos is Morones’ sidekick—the exuberant and animated Simpson.

“It started out as kind of an experiment to see if I could get some people to watch me…I just did it for fun,” Morones said.

After one year and over one hundred video posts, Morones’ YouTube channel has claimed over 2,700 subscribers and is home to videos that have been viewed in excess of 37,000 times.

“I’ve been a big fan of his Foundmyrosebud01 videos for close to a year now,” Rhode Island graduate student Rob LeBlanc said. “I think one reason Shawn has built up such a huge and devoted fan-base on YouTube is that he really makes the most of the site’s capacity for interactive filmmaking.”

Simpson and Morones came into contact with each other by chance while on an APU—sponsored summer music ministry tour. Soon after being acquainted they became friends. Their friendship eventually spread into the realm of cyberspace.

“He was [making the videos while we were] on tour…I was just in the room… laughing the entire time,” said Simpson. “As we became better friends we eventually became a team. When it comes down to it, I’m his right hand man.”

The regularly posted video clips, which range from ten seconds to just under eight minutes, are always different and are never scripted.

“It’s all improvised,” said Morones. “We have a basic idea of what we’re going to do…but we’re making it up as we go along.”

The videos as a whole have no particular theme and can be watched in any order. Morones also creates and posts them at random intervals.

“[We make a lot of the videos at] the end of the day…most of them are made late at night,” said Morones. “Now with school it’s whenever we have time to.”

The duo has become semi-famous on the vast YouTube community and is steadily growing in popularity at APU.

“I have been subscribing to them for the past 4 months,” junior liberal studies major Jessica Gonsalves said. “I am always looking forward to seeing what videos they will make next, because most of the time, they are completely random!”

Surprisingly, many of their usual viewers are not from APU, California, or even America. Simpson said most of their fans are located in the UK, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand

“I used to say ‘hello America,’ until people started letting me know they’re not from America. So I started saying ‘hello world,’” said Morones.

The series has given birth to several memorable catch phrases including, “ooh chicklet gum!,” “hey man!,” referring to things as “mega-tight,” and calling people chumps and hams.

Well, they’re far less funny in print.

“Now people come up to me and say ‘ooh chicklet gum’…it’s crazy,” said Simpson.

One might wonder what propels these men to spend so much time making and posting internet videos?

“We just do it for fun,” Morones said. “There’s no real goal. Overall it’s just for fun…There is this kind of elevated pressure now to keep them coming.”

Despite their thousands of viewers, Morones and Simpson make no monetary profit for their efforts.

“Years down the road we’ll be able to look back and see how we made all those videos…it’s better than any yearbook,” Simpson said.

Most of the aspects of Morones and Simpson’s onscreen personas are fictional but some are true off-screen.

“I really do love chicklet gum, said Morones. “I usually have a pack on me.”

Though the duo doesn’t plan to make a career out of homemade YouTube videos, Simpson does plan to be involved in the entertainment world.

“I want to be on the Disney Channel,” said Simpson. “I want to get into acting. If that falls through…I really don’t think it’ll fall through.”

In today’s world of evolving cyber-technology, a young man with an idea, a computer and a cheap beard can literally reach and entertain viewers all over the world—a capability that was, until recently, only affordable to wealthy entertainment producers and media corporations.